Niclas Bergfors wore number 11 while playing right winger for the Florida Panthers in the 2010/2011 NHL season. He earned a salary, reportedly, of $900,000. The total team salary for the Florida Panthers was reportedly $35,302,500, so his salary represented 2.5% of that total team payroll. We can compare his salary to the other players on his team. The median salary for a player on the Florida Panthers was $900,000, while the average salary was $1,604,659. He played a total of 72 games that season, with 12 goals and 24 assists - a total of 36 points. If we divide his reported salary by the number of games played, we find he earned $12,500.00 per game played. Niclas Bergfors had a plus/minus of -9, 8 PIM (penalties in minutes), 3 PP (power play goals), 0 SH (short-handed goals), 1 GWG (game winning goals), and took 152 shots. He had a shooting percentage in the 2010/2011 season of 7.90%. We can divide his salary by the number of goals scored, as well as by the number of points (goals plus assists), if we want to try to evaluate his performance strictly on offense. His salary per goal scored was $75,000 and his salary per point was $25,000.

But then, there are taxes. Each hockey season is played during two calendar years, however, given an annual salary in the U.S. of $900,000 we can estimate that he would have to pay $290,284 in federal income taxes. That is about the same amount of tax as the tax paid by 36 median high school teachers, 41 median police officers, or 58 median fire fighters. After paying the IRS, he would have $609,716 left over. However, he may still have to use some of that money to pay state or city taxes as well.

About the author

Author: Mark McCracken is a corporate trainer and author living in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He is the author of thousands of online articles as well as the Business English textbook, "25 Business Skills in English".